4 ms·

Legal and purity regulated heroin would have by far the biggest impact, because of the scourge of fentanyl deaths. If I had to choose between legal cannabis an

Legal and purity regulated heroin would have by far the biggest impact, because of the scourge of fentanyl deaths. If I had to choose between legal cannabis and legal heroin, I’d choose the latter on utilitarian grounds. (Although obviously I support both wholeheartedly.)

camjohnson26 5y ago
Given how addictive heroin is how do people supporting decriminalization suggest dealing with hard core addicts that can’t afford the drug? Giving it away for free in a clinic, hospitalizing hardcore users, letting legal dealers take on the risks directly?
- samatman 5y ago
  A one-sentence summary of my policy goal is "make sure all addicts get heroin, from a place where they have access to help in quitting if they can". So any dispensary would have addiction specialists on hand, anyone getting heroin would have a card and a database. "Casual" and light users would pay, a known hard-case addict with limited means would get it subsidized or free. The goal is primarily to kick the bottom out of the black market, with a close second being keeping addicts healthy and alive, where quitting heroin is the best case scenario.
- vlowther 5y ago
  Legalize it and let "hardcore" heroin addicts get a prescription. It is expensive due to it being illegal and the willingness of addicts to pay damn near anything, not due to any intrinsic difficulty in manufacturing.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  "Given how addictive heroin is how do people supporting decriminalization suggest dealing with hard core addicts that can’t afford the drug?" Cigarettes are even more addictive, and yet we aren't freaking out and throwing cigarette smokers in jail.
- greedo 5y ago
  I don't know the solution to this, but I'm open to trying anything other than the failed police policies we've been repeating for what seems like forever. One of my nieces died from heart failure last year. She had been living on the street and been a hard core drug user. I can't say that it was heroin that killed her, because like most street users, she took anything she could get her hands on. But her heroin addiction was what kept her on the street. She had been through treatment more times than I can count. None helped for very long. In the end, she's dead at 29, a life completely wasted. Would legalized heroin with clean needles have saved her? Don't know. But our current system sure didn't.
TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
I definitely wouldn't support the legalization of heroin. We already have alternatives(kratom, suboxone) that are legal and have far less abuse potential. Not all drugs are the same, we shouldn't act like they are.
- dasv 5y ago
  Well, we have already tried that with methadone clinics. To compete with the black market it needs to be the same product.
  - TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
    Yeah, and lots of people used methadone successfully. I don't want there to be stiff market competition in the addictive substances market. We already did that with tobacco and still haven't fully phased that out.
- vidarh 5y ago
  And yet the ongoing use of heroin demonstrates that this does not work well enough and condemns people to suffering or death.
cwkoss 5y ago
Another option is to legalize buprenorphine so it can be distributed cheaply over the counter without prescription. It outcompetes receptors to exclude heroin and is often prescribed for heroin cessation. If heroin addicts had an easy option to not feel sick without that was cheaper and more available than heroin, I believe many would take it, and the heroin market would shrink - leading to lesser availability and fewer future addicts.

camjohnson26 5y ago

Given how addictive heroin is how do people supporting decriminalization suggest dealing with hard core addicts that can’t afford the drug? Giving it away for free in a clinic, hospitalizing hardcore users, letting legal dealers take on the risks directly?

samatman 5y ago
A one-sentence summary of my policy goal is "make sure all addicts get heroin, from a place where they have access to help in quitting if they can". So any dispensary would have addiction specialists on hand, anyone getting heroin would have a card and a database. "Casual" and light users would pay, a known hard-case addict with limited means would get it subsidized or free. The goal is primarily to kick the bottom out of the black market, with a close second being keeping addicts healthy and alive, where quitting heroin is the best case scenario.
vlowther 5y ago
Legalize it and let "hardcore" heroin addicts get a prescription. It is expensive due to it being illegal and the willingness of addicts to pay damn near anything, not due to any intrinsic difficulty in manufacturing.
pmoriarty 5y ago
"Given how addictive heroin is how do people supporting decriminalization suggest dealing with hard core addicts that can’t afford the drug?" Cigarettes are even more addictive, and yet we aren't freaking out and throwing cigarette smokers in jail.
greedo 5y ago
I don't know the solution to this, but I'm open to trying anything other than the failed police policies we've been repeating for what seems like forever. One of my nieces died from heart failure last year. She had been living on the street and been a hard core drug user. I can't say that it was heroin that killed her, because like most street users, she took anything she could get her hands on. But her heroin addiction was what kept her on the street. She had been through treatment more times than I can count. None helped for very long. In the end, she's dead at 29, a life completely wasted. Would legalized heroin with clean needles have saved her? Don't know. But our current system sure didn't.

TheAdamAndChe 5y ago

I definitely wouldn't support the legalization of heroin. We already have alternatives(kratom, suboxone) that are legal and have far less abuse potential. Not all drugs are the same, we shouldn't act like they are.

dasv 5y ago
Well, we have already tried that with methadone clinics. To compete with the black market it needs to be the same product.
- TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
  Yeah, and lots of people used methadone successfully. I don't want there to be stiff market competition in the addictive substances market. We already did that with tobacco and still haven't fully phased that out.
vidarh 5y ago
And yet the ongoing use of heroin demonstrates that this does not work well enough and condemns people to suffering or death.

cwkoss 5y ago

Another option is to legalize buprenorphine so it can be distributed cheaply over the counter without prescription. It outcompetes receptors to exclude heroin and is often prescribed for heroin cessation. If heroin addicts had an easy option to not feel sick without that was cheaper and more available than heroin, I believe many would take it, and the heroin market would shrink - leading to lesser availability and fewer future addicts.